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Businessman Farhad Moshiri has insisted he purchased a major stake in Everton solely with his own funds after a BBC probe into his relationship with Alisher Usmanov, a shareholder in Premier League rivals...

In a milestone for artificial intelligence, a computer has beaten a human champion at a strategy game that requires "intuition" rather than brute processing power to prevail, its makers said Wednesday.
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Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity is about to celebrate its 100th anniversary, and his revolutionary hypothesis has withstood the test of time, despite numerous expert attempts to find flaws.
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The remains of five archbishops of Canterbury have been accidentally discovered by builders in a hidden tomb beneath a London church, site developers said yesterday.
Some 20 lead coffins were discovered...

The first major retrospective of gay British art opens this week at the Tate Britain gallery in London, featuring a portrait of Oscar Wilde next to his prison cell door.
"Queer British Art 1861-1967"...

From Walkmans to iPhones and classic cars to robotic arms, London's new Design Museum will offer a journey through the world of contemporary design when it opens its doors to the public next week.
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Harry Potter fans were buzzing with excitement Saturday as "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child", a stage play that imagines the fictional boy wizard as a grown-up father of three, opened in London.
After...

ECB lends £409bn to eurozone banks

Published: 21 December 2011

The European Central Bank (ECB) has revealed it lent nearly 489 billion euro (£409.3 billion) to the continent's banks in a bid to boost confidence in the eurozone.

The ECB said 523 unnamed banks had taken up the loans, which will be offered on a three-year term for the first time, in the biggest liquidity operation ever for the central bank, surpassing the 442 billion euro (£369 billion) in one-year loans in June 2009.

The move boosted sentiment towards the wider sector with Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds Banking Group and Barclays all climbing to the top of the FTSE 100 Index.

But Martin van Vliet, analyst at ING Bank, said doubts remain over whether the money will be used to support weaker eurozone economies.

He said while the take-up was "massive", the number of banks involved was smaller than the 1,121 two years ago, which suggested the participating banks were concentrated in the weak periphery of the eurozone.

He said: "We doubt whether the money will be used extensively to fund purchases of peripheral debt, given concerns about mark-to-market risks and possible reputation risks."

The ECB earlier this month unleashed further emergency measures to rescue the struggling eurozone, including slashing interest rates for the second time in five weeks, to 1%, and offering more lenient terms on loans.